


puzzle pieces

by orphan_account



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: :), F/F, Gen, enjoy, everyone else is here too im just lazy, everyone lives in cali, fierce lady byers, jane is learning and becoming herself, of course i ruin it with dark things THATS JUST WHO I AM, sweet story about awakenings and growing up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2020-05-14 11:15:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19272157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The pretty red haired girl smiled at her. And it was now, after her first awakening on the beach, after smiling that big Jane smile all day, it was now that the first puzzle piece had fallen into place.





	1. i’ll never go back there

Trees.

It’s something she never took notice of until now. She tried to avoid every thought of the trees and the woods that they reside in. The foresting perimeters of this town made her feel boxed in, with little holes poked in the top so she could breathe.

So now as she and her dad drive past the woods, the trees fly by in a blur of green and the dead branches are barely noticeable as they drive past, and Hawkins almost looks, pretty.

It looks even prettier as they drive out of it.

She cranes her neck to follow the ‘Leaving Hawkins’ sign, watching it until it gets tinier and tinier until she can’t see it anymore, everything that had happened to her, its all behind them now, literally. There was a small weight that left her as she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. There was still something there, and it was now that she was escaping the box that Jane Hopper realized that what had happened to her was going to stick with her forever. No matter where she escaped to. But she shoved that down where it belonged, for she had her own box inside of her, and she stuffed all those bad feelings inside, and she left no holes for air.

The trees continue to blur by and it becomes too much, because she can see herself two years ago in the woods, pouring rain as she ran, and a man lost his life because people were desperate to find her. It’s too much because the memories come flooding back, and they’re leaving so that she won’t have to relive it all. So she turns away and stares out in front of her and watches as they bend around a stretch of nothingness.

A rough and calloused hand lands on top of hers, “If you wanna go back, just say the word.” 

She laughed and her smile is met with his. She sighs happily and sinks further into her seat and props her legs up on the dash.

”No turning back.” She says.

He nods his head, “No turning back.” He repeats.

It’s set in stone now. Hawkins was erased from her mind, Indiana itself was. If she ever had to cross the country again, she go around the state as if it doesn’t exist, she decides. 

“This Joyce lady,” She starts slowly, a hint of mischief creeping into her voice, “What is she like?”

A smile tugs at his face, and he _knows_ that _she_ knows because Ellie Jane is a snooper, but he answers her anyways. 

“She’s good.”

”Good?”

He takes his eyes off the road for a few seconds to look at her, “Yeah, she’s good.”

Ellie Jane knows Joyce Byers. She knows that Joyce went to high school with Jim, and that they had _fun_ together. When Jane came across those moments it was safe to say she sped through those moments like a speed demon. Joyce was fierce, and brave, and Jane couldn’t wait to meet her. There were only a few people that her dad smiled for, Jane herself, and in the memories he had with Joyce. They were something Jane learned to be “high school sweethearts” although they were never actually together. Jane thought that was extremely weird, she figured if you liked someone, then be with them. But she spent her childhood in a cold lab, so maybe she didn’t know too much about that. But she knew enough with Jim’s help, she could get by.

She sat back in her seat, and the blur of the trees are gone now as they pass through fields, so she turns her head back towards the window, and imagines herself running through them, being free.

...

Water.

It’s something she had never seen so much of before. Waves crashing against the sand, rushing up to her ankles and falling back, only to do it all over again.

She was only in her shorts, as they had just arrived. When Jane saw those big waves fighting one another, she looked to Jim with big, expectant eyes.

She watches him at the payphone from the edges of the sand, holding a hand up to her eyes to shield the piercing light of the sun from her eyes. It might just be the feeling of liberation and peace, but the sun seems brighter here. California was her favorite place in the world now, and they had just crossed the state line ten minutes ago. But it wasn’t Hawkins, and there were trees but scarcely so. She wasn’t in a box anymore, she was on a flat plane, like an unfinished puzzle board. There was no need to poke little holes because it was so open here, too much air was filling her lungs as she ran around with her arms wide open.

As Hopper walked over to Ellie Jane, he was sure that the sun was jealous, because when she smiled her happy smile, it was brighter than any star in the sky.

Jane is happy, even back in the car as they drive to Joyce’s house she’s happy. Her sockless feet back on the dash, the windows are down and that funny smelling sea breeze fills in the spaces, but she doesn’t mind it.

They drive on sandy terrain and houses start to come into view. She peers her head over Jim’s and sees the ocean where she just had her first awakening, she’s pretty sure. 

“She _lives_ on the beach?”

”Yeah, kid.”

In all of her snooping, she hadn’t seen the beach, or a house on the beach. She leans back in awe, and breathes out happily.

”Listen, her sons, they have friends over right now.” He taps his fingers against the wheel, and she can feel the nerves bounce inside of him. “If you want to wait until they leave, I understand.”

She bites her bottom lip in thought, “Friends?”

”Yeah. Your age, and some are older.”

She considers it, and she knows they’re getting closer to the house because he slows down, giving her time to think. She waits for that suffocating feeling, and it doesn’t come. People her age, she thinks. When she watched television back home, she saw people hanging out with their friends, and she knew that if she stayed in that box with those holes in it, she would never have that. But now she’s on a flat unfinished puzzle board, open and free. She can have friends.

”I want to go.”

And the revving of the engine as he presses his foot on the gas a little harder is his ‘ _Okay_ ,’ and she smiles as wide as she can as the wind whips past her hair. She sticks her head out of the window, and she finally feels like herself. She thinks, ‘ _this is who ellie jane hopper is_.’

...

“What are the names of her kids?”

He pulls the keys out of the ignition and dusts the dash from the sand that’s starting to cover it. “Will, your age. And Jonathan, he’s about seventeen.”

She hums to herself, satisfied. “I’m ready to go in.”

This was it, her new home. Joyce Byers was kind enough to let them stay, and it was here that Jane knew her life would begin. 

She steps out of the car and her now socked feet dig into the damp sand. Jim grabs her hand and squeezes tight, because even though Ellie Jane says she’s ready, he can see the nerves bounce around in her as her eyes dart around their surroundings.

”On the phone, she said to let ourselves in.”

She nods, and lets go of his hand as she touches the door knob. She pauses there for a moment because this is it. The moment she steps into the house, the moment she meets the fierce lady and her kids and their friends, everything will change. Waiting, the suffocating feeling never comes, and as she turns the doorknob she knows it will never come back. It’s replaced with something else, a buzzing feeling, and she likes it. It’s making her burst with excitement as she pushes herself inside the house, inside the loudness and chaos, a place that looks lived in and loved. Kids scatter the floor, and pieces that look like toys are placed on a board.

”Roll for initiative!” 

The curly haired kid with a colorful hat that doesn’t match the rest of his clothes rolls die, and silence follows as he and the other kids wait for them to go still. She finds herself locked in and she too waits for the outcome. The kid lets out a roar and throws his hands up in the air and the others clap. She laughs out loud and claps too, as if she had been apart of it all.

The clapping stops and more silence follows as they all turn to the giggling and clapping that came from outside of the game circle and they stare.

Jane felt Jim’s heavy hand on her shoulder, and she was just getting ready to speak, to introduce herself first because she was different now. She could talk because she wasn’t suffocating anymore, and then the lady she remembers as Joyce came into the room, smile brighter than stage lights and eyes as big as the moon. 

“Hopper!” She threw her arms around Jim and they swayed back and forth in the hug. Jane smiled to herself, and then those same arms were being thrown around her person and she was engulfed in a sweet smelling perfume, and Jane leaned all the way into it. She was finally meeting the Joyce Byers, the cool lady who pulled what Jim informed her as “pranks” in her younger days, and now she protected her two sons and Jane couldn’t be anymore star struck.

”Hi, sweetie.” Joyce ran her fingers through Jane’s hair, “Oh look at you, you’re so pretty.”

Jane smiled that big smile again, she had never smiled this much before. “Thank you. You’re pretty too.”

That made Joyce blush, and she finally pulled away. She glanced up at Hopper with an all knowing smile, and she pushed behind Jane like she was presenting her. Joyce introduced Jane, and all of them came bounding up to her, all talking at once.

Joyce was beginning to walk away, Jim’s hand in hers, but before she did, she said, “They all talk at once, but you’ll get used to that. When you’re done I’ll show you to your room.” She left Jane with a smile and skipped off with Jim, resembling a memory Jane snooped of from long ago.

Her attention was turned back to the herd of kids that were talking to her.

”I’m Mike, and I’m the paladin.”

Another kid pushed him - _Mike_ out of the way. The curly kid with the strange hat. “I’m Dustin, and I am the ever so awesome bard.”

Dustin was pushed out of the way and another kid came bouncing up with his arms around another who looked suspiciously like the fierce lady Byers.

”I’m Lucas, the ranger.” He gestures to the shorter kid tucked under his arm, “And this is Will, our cleric.”

Jane has no idea what any of this means, but she nods her head anyways, another Jane smile bright on her face as she took in their names, and the other stuff that came with it.

”And I’m Max, the zoomer.”

Red hair stopping right at what she learned to be the collarbone. Striking blueish greenish greyish eyes that were prettier than the ocean, and freckles that Jane wanted to reach out and count. The softest voice that Jane had ever heard and she wanted her - _Max_ to tell her all of the stories of her life, no matter how boring or long because Jane just wanted to hear her talk again.

”Hi. I - I’m Jane.”

The pretty red haired girl smiled at her. And it was now, after her first awakening on the beach, after smiling that big Jane smile all day, it was now that the first puzzle piece had fallen into place.


	2. pretty girl, it's the eighties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And then it's silent, and they're still sitting really close, and she can feel Max's breath on her face. 
> 
> Max clears her throat, and Jim's voice saying, 'It's the 80s, kid' rings in her head. They shuffle away from each other and Jane slides off the bed and heads for the door when, "Wait."
> 
> Jane whips her head around to see Max pulling the covers back on the bed, "You can sleep in here, tonight. If you want."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, enjoy!

San Francisco, California.

As Jane slid into Joyce’s van, squished between her new found friends, she was told that she now resides in San Francisco. Jane had thought that the beach was amazing, but as the van carried them along the smooth roads of the highway, she watched the buildings go by in awe, and if she had a window seat, she was sure she would be pressed up against the glass.

The light in the sky was beginning to dim as it was getting later in the day, and the lights in the skyscrapers flickered on, becoming beacons of light, not able to be missed. 

They were going to _Eppie’s_ , a twenty four hour diner not fifteen minutes from Joyce’s house.

”The Cajun burger - _so_ good. I can eat like, _three_ in twenty minutes.” Dustin says eagerly to her, dragging her attention from counting each and every tall building she sees.

Mike pipes up from the back where he’s squished in between Will and Lucas, “That’s because you’re a _human_ _vacuum_ , Dustin.”

"Shut _up_ , Mike!"

”It’s true, one time he ate _so_ much that he _threw_ _up_ on Steve’s shoes. He was so mad he made Dustin ride in the backseat for a _week_.”

That was Max, who gave her this tidbit of information, all while being squished - _pressed_ up against her. Jane never payed much detail into how people smelled, she was all about their conversation. But now, up against this girl that she had only met hours ago, she was sure that Max used some exclusive pretty girl shampoo because - it smelled great. 

“Who’s Steve?” Jane asks staring straight ahead, her neck hurts from being so stiff, but she knows if she looks at the girl, she won’t look away.

”He’s like an extra brother slash babysitter to us. He’s super cool, kind of dorky but, you’ll love him.”

And that was the end of that, because Eppie’s was coming into view, and any conversation of this Steve person, was out of mind. 

Everyone seemed eager to eat, clamoring out of the van, shoving one another as if the diner would suddenly disappear into thin air.

Everyone seemed excited except for herself and Will. It made sense for her to be calm about it, she was still learning about everything. And although her meals consisted of frozen waffles and also frozen dinners, she considered food, _food_. But Will looks out of place, even more so than she does, which is hard to do. His friends are bouncing around, waiting for the slow as molasses moving adults and they talk about what they’re going to order, and hoping that their favorite booth was open. Will? He’s distant. He looks like he is just there, just lingering.

Jane knows the feeling all too well. It had been plenty of times around Jim and his work friends that she would feel wrong, like she was messing with the flow of things. It was one of those instances where she got that suffocating feeling, and had no way to escape.

She walks closer to him as they make their way towards the diner and she remembers Jim’s lessons in small talk, “What are you going to order?”

He’s startled by her sudden outburst of talking and he physically flinches. “Um. I - I don’t know.” He stutters, still shocked by her speaking to him, “Maybe just a burger. And fries.”

She hums to herself, satisfied with his answer. “Do they have _waffle_ fries?”

He giggles, and she feels that her mission is accomplished. She knows that Jim told Joyce who told Will, that she has a concerning obsession with the treat. “Um, yea. Yes they have waffle fries.” 

And although there isn’t one on his face, she can hear a smile in his voice. Mission accomplished, indeed.

"God, Dustin fucking _scoot_ _over_!" Mike yelled as he attempts to push Dustin over to the window.

Joyce picks up a menu, and she doesn't even look up when she says, "Watch that mouth of yours, Mike." It looked like routine to her.

"Sorry, Ms. Byers."

They're all squished into a booth, and Jim and Joyce sit alone in another one, sitting across from each other.

Jane was sitting beside Max, _again_ , but she was sitting on the outside of the booth. If she felt an overwhelming feeling of _wow she's so pretty and she smells so good_ then, she can just escape to the bathroom. She fiddles with the menu, sliding it in and out of her hands, not really paying attention. They have at least twelve different types of burgers, which for Jane is twelve too many. They have loaded fries, whatever _that_ means. And a plethora of sides she's never had before in her life.

"What are you getting?" It's Max, speaking to her, again. And this time she's _really_ close to her ear, because Dustin and Lucas are arguing about which burger is the best, Mike is pestering Will about ordering the same thing every time, and she hears a jingling sound, which means another person has entered the diner; another person she now has to be aware of.

Jane doesn't answer, and that prompts Max to speak again, "You should get the Eppie classic."

She hears an unfamiliar voice, and she can feel them directly behind her, "That is _actually_  the worst thing on the menu, _red_."

"Literally _stop_ calling me that."

"Then stop being red, _freckles_."

Max whips around and punches this mystery person on the arm and then Jane turns around too, because she thinks Max is in danger. But when she does, she sees a boy who's probably older than them, with dark brown hair and behind the sunglasses he's wearing she can faintly see big dark eyes. He's laughing, and then Max is laughing, and even Will is giggling a little, so it must be okay.

"You're Steve."

He makes a funny face, and she can see a smile at the corner of his lips, "Am I?"

She giggles and he smiles back at her, and she thinks _yea he is pretty cool_.

"Who are you?" He asks.

"I'm Jane -"

"Steve. _Steve_. Steve, buddy."

He sighs deeply, and runs his fingers through his hair, " _What_ , Dustin?"

"Tell Lucas that the Cajun burger, is the _best_ burger on the menu."

"The Hungry Man is top notch." Lucas says defensively. 

Dustin scoffs and flicks his straw paper at Lucas' face, "That _burger_ is a gross monstrosity smothered in nasty barbecue sauce!"

"Jesus _I don't care_ , I literally don't fucking care." Steve says, throwing a sugar packet at Dustin, only for it to bounce off of the rim of his hat.

Dustin picks up the sugar and _grins_ because _he's weird like that_ , Jane learns, and turns back to Lucas and their argument continues.

"So Jane," Steve starts, turning his attention back to her and Max, "Where are you from?"

"Hawkins. Hawkins, Indiana."

He huffs out a laugh, "Sounds like a shithole."

Max pulls her straw out of her mouth, a twinkle in her eyes as she's found her opportunity, " _You're_ a shithole."

"You're a _shithead_." He bites back.

Jane giggles again, because these people are funny. She's probably laughed more today than she has in her timeline in Hawkins. Her eyes find Jim, and he's laughing. He looks soft and at peace, and she knows now that this will be their new home. And when Joyce laughs sweetly, hair falling over her petite face, and when her hand lands on Jim's arm, the second puzzle falls into place, right next to the first.

And when Max has her turn of being soft and beautiful and laughs sweetly, Jane's breath hitches in her throat and she curses herself because, she met this girl just hours ago and she's hanging on to everything she does. Then, when Max's leg brushes up against hers, her cheeks flush and she can feel them heating up, and she scoots away because Jim told her that this was the 80s, and people weren't all too friendly to people like her. People who liked _differently_ than other people did. It's too much for her, she needs to get out, needs fresh air because if she spends one more second squished next to her in this tiny booth she's gonna _freak_ and be like those people in her soaps and be dramatic and _that_ won't be good. She would probably set the grease ablaze in the kitchen and have a freak nosebleed and scare everybody. Then her and Jim would probably have to move again, to somewhere that isn't pretty California. So, she _has_ to get out. She feels eyes on the back of her neck, and she turns to see Steve staring intently at her, like he's figuring her out.

He turns away from her, just for a second, "Hey Will, wanna find Dipper?"

Will nods eagerly, and both Jane and Max have to get up to let him out. Max slides back in, but before Jane can, Steve is stopping her.

"Wanna come?"

And it's like this guy can read minds.

She nods and follows the two outside, and she only flinches slightly when the bell on the door chimes as they leave. Jane breathes deeply, taking in the air she so desperately needed. It's silent for a few minutes as Steve and Will dart their eyes around at the night sky, full of twinkling stars that she can't believe she can see under all the city lights. Suddenly Will lights up and points up to a spot in the sky, Jane's eyes follow his finger and sees an odd pattern of stars.

"There!" Will says.

Steve looks to where he's pointing and he sighs and digs into his pocket, "How can you seriously find it every time?"

"I'm a _nerd_ , Steve," Will holds out his hand, "And you're always wearing those stupid sunglasses. It's _night_."

"I'm also a nerd, Will. And my glasses are _far_ from stupid." He says as he drops a five dollar bill into Will's hands, "You're gonna have an entire college fund if you keep beating me."

Will stuffs the money in his pocket, "Yeah but, you're more of a dork than a nerd. And we've only played this game four times."

"Whatever, scrawny. Four times too many."

"Whatever, _Bambi_."

Steve pushes into Will with his elbow, "Literally _don't_ even do that."

Will laughs, and Jane begins to grow even fonder of this Steve person. Will is just like her, she sees that in more ways than one, and Steve makes him comfortable. She looks him over again, and her eyes fall onto his sunglasses.

She walks over to them and points to Steve's face, "Can I wear them?"

Will's eyes grow big, and he looks to Steve who just shrugs and takes his glasses off of his face. He hands them to Jane, and she can immediately see the dark color of his eyes, and the even darker circles around them. He looks _tired_.

Jane stares at him, glasses in hand.

He looks away and looks at his converse covered feet, "C'mon, let's go back in. I don't wanna smell like outside."

Jane walks ahead, with the glasses perched on top of her head like she'd seen in movies instead of on her face. She doesn't flinch when the door chimes this time, and she squeezes back beside Max in the booth. Mike is scarfing down fries, and his face musters a look of disgust as he looks at Steve, "You look fucking gross."

"I really, _honest to god_ , hope you fucking _choke_ on those fries." 

"Nancy will kick your ass when I tell her you said that to me."

"I literally don't fucking care." And because Max says that at the same time he did, mocking him, he picks up one of Mike's fries and throws it at her.

And Jane smiles to herself because she's fallen in love with this place and it's people already. She can't wait until tomorrow.

 

It's late, and they're back at Joyce's house - _her house_ now too, and they're all watching Star Wars and Jane learns that Steve has a habit of throwing things because anytime Dustin or Will quotes a character, he throws a piece of popcorn at them. It looks fun, so she moves from beside Jim to sit next to Steve, and grabs her own handful of popcorn.

"Oh _god_ , she's been here for a _day_ and you've already corrupted her." Dustin groans from the floor. Jane lands a piece of popcorn in his shirt.

Lucas chimes in, a smile covering his face, "Yeah, she's even got his sunglasses on her head."

Steve throws a piece of popcorn at him that time, and Lucas yells that he's got butter in his eye.

The credits roll and Mike's watch starts to beep. "Oh _shit_. Steve it's 11:30."

Steve sits up abruptly and grabs at the clock that sits on the end table next to the couch he's sitting on. Jane follows his movement in confusion and she feels her heart rate pick up at his worried expression, "What's wrong?" She asks.

He doesn't respond to her, he just cleans up his popcorn throwing mess and frantically pats his pockets for his keys, "If you're riding with me _let's fucking go_ , now."

Joyce hops up from her spot beside Jim, "Steve sweetie, they can stay the night." She grabs his face sweetly, "They'll be _fine_ , just go home. Or don't. You know I don't like you being there." And the tone of Joyce's voice is telling a story that Jane has yet to hear.

"Yeah, Steve. I can just stay." Jane looks in surprise, because this is the first time all day that Mike had spoken to Steve without insulting him. Lucas and Dustin both nod eagerly.

Joyce grabs his face again, "You only live down the street, if you need _anything_ -"

He nods, and Joyce's hands bounce with his movement, "I'll come."

And although he gives words of reassurance, Joyce's hands fall from his face and the forlorn look that crosses her features says that she knows that he won't.

 

It's later than late now, and Jane stands at the edge of the stairs, listening to Jim and Joyce when she's supposed to be in bed.

Joyce stands next to Jim, and she's smoking a cigarette, " I just - I wish I could _do_ something."

Jim's leaning on the corner, "Have you seen any bruises?"

She scoffs and takes another drag of her cigarette before answering, " _Yeah_ , anybody with eyes has seen them."

"Police?" He asks.

She shakes her head and her tongue juts out from her bottom lip, "His father's some," - a drag of a cigarette - "Some big hotshot business man. Police won't touch him."

"Well, I'm going down to the station tomorrow. Filling out an application, maybe _I_ can help the kid. I've got experience."

She shakes her head again, "It won't - It won't matter." She waves her hand with the cigarette around as she talks and ashes go flying. "He won't talk. He won't _say_ anything. He just passes it off like - like he was playing basketball with his friends."

She takes a long drag of her cigarette and closes her eyes, "And John, he's getting _creative_ now. Hitting him where we - where we can't _see_."

Jim turns to face her fully, and in hiding, Jane edges even closer to the kitchen.

Joyce spots the look on Jim's face and continues, "Last month, he was moving like - like he was in so much pain, Hop," She pauses and winces, as she's reliving it all. "He was playing with the kids and, one of them tackled him and - oh god, he was so hurt. He was - he was clutching at his back, s- so I moved his shirt." She takes another drag from her cigarette, and in the moonlight pooling in from the kitchen window, Jane can see a tear slide down her cheek.

Jane goes down the hallway to go to her new room, because tears of her own began to trail down, and her heart feels tight in her chest, and a painful lump is forming in her throat. She only stops because she sees Max's light on in the room, and before her brain can catch up with her body, she's knocking on her door. She wipes away at her face just as Max opens the door, a sleepy look in her eyes, and her hair done in two braids. And it must be the full moon, because Jane smiles her Jane smile and says, "You look pretty."

But it's okay, because girls who are friends call each other pretty all the time, so when Max smiles back, Jane knows that she was still in the clear. Almost as clear as those pretty blue eyes, and when Max invites her inside her room, Jane knows she's screwed. 

"You have a room here?" Jane asks because, if the girl lived her too, she would just be down the hall from someone she had an embarrassingly huge crush on.

Max just smiles at Jane, "Sort of. My home life can be, a lot so, Joyce let's me stay here sometimes."

And Jane's face lights up because, "Is Joyce _rich_?"

Max laughs her sweet laugh and Jane's a _goner_ , "No she's - she got some money awhile back, from a lawsuit. It was _wild_."

"Wild?"

Max scoots closer to Jane on the bed, and she tries not to freak out, " _Yeah_ I mean, these weird government people were involved, it was on the news and everything."

Jane's eyes widen in bewilderment and she asks, "What happened?"

Max gets even closer to Jane, so close she can count her freckles one by one, "Something _strange_ happened to Will, but I'll have to tell you another time," She looks around the room and her voice gets even lower. "I'll tell you another time, somewhere _quieter_."

And then it's silent, and they're still sitting really close, and she can feel Max's breath on her face. 

Max clears her throat, and Jim's voice saying, _It's the 80s, kid_ rings in her head. They shuffle away from each other and Jane slides off the bed and heads for the door when, "Wait."

Jane whips her head around to see Max pulling the covers back on the bed, "You can sleep in here, tonight. If you want."

And, _of course_ Jane wants. And because Joyce had settlement money and lives on the beach, Jane falls asleep to the sounds of the ocean, and next to a pretty girl with eyes of the same color.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> somehow i keep inserting a steve storyline into my stories, i just love him. and i love elmax too, and byler, AND jopper and i'm feeling overwhelmed, i hope you are too!!
> 
> edit: also realized that sacramento is no where near a god damned beach so,, san fran it is!! can you tell i know nothing about cali?


	3. no storm last night

 

 It’s seven in the morning.

It’s seven in the morning and Jane finds something else among the many differences between Hawkins and San Francisco. Hawkins’ mornings were dark, and cloudy and dreadful, and it smelled sticky and gross. Jim told her it was because of humidity, and Jane decided that if humidity were ever a person she would _totally_ kick its sticky ass. 

But _here_ , the mornings are bright. In every window in this house, sunlight is pouring in. And _here_ , the air is dry and the windows are up and the house smells like the sea, and it isn’t sticky. Because humidity knows that if it shows itself here that Jane would have _none_ of that.

It’s early, but because of that brightness, the residents of this house (including the new ones) and their guests are up, making pancakes, eggs, bacon, and _waffles_. Real ones, not that ‘ _gross processed shit_ ’ she remembers Mike calling it.

And despite it being early, the occupants of this house are still rowdy, especially Dustin.

”God damnit, son of a bitch. Son of a bitch!” He slammed his hand against his SuperComm and twisted the knobs.

Mike called out from the living room floor, where Will sat next to him, “What are you doing?”

”I am _trying_ to contact Steve!”

Will speaks up as he starts poking Mike in the sides, “He’s just a few houses down.”

Dustin throws his hands up in agreement, “Exactly! It should be working,” He slams his against the device again, and groans loudly when he’s still met with static.

Mike sighs and grabs a hold of Will’s hand, “No, dipshit. He means that you could just walk to his house like a person of normalcy, instead of you know, _you_.”

”You want me to _walk_?”

Lucas calls out from the kitchen as he fetches eggs from the fridge for Joyce, “It’s like, a two minute walk. One if you run.”

”You know what happens when I exert myself, Lucas.” Dustin says matter of fact.

Mike walks to the kitchen with Will in tow, “Well maybe he turned it off cause he’s sick of talking to you, like I am.”

Max picks up a spoon and dips it in pancake batter, and then splats it at Mike with a satisfied grin on her face, “Don’t be mean.”

He wipes at his shirt angrily and scowls at her, “I _actually_ hate you.”

Jane stops her stirring and looks at Dustin, “We could go check on him, if you’re worried.”

”Sweetie, maybe he’s just asleep. It’s early y’know.” Joyce says as she sears the bacon.

”That would make sense, but Steve doesn’t sleep.” Max says.

Joyce turns her head and her cooking slows as she looks at them in confusion, “He doesn’t?”

”Nope.”

Dustin walks into the kitchen, still toying around with his walkie, “That’s why he’s always wearing those sunglasses, he’s hiding those bags under his eyes.”

Jane motions for Lucas to come to her and she gives him her bowl of batter and the spoon. “I’m going to check on him. Show me his house.”

Max shoves her spoon at Mike, “I’ll go!”

Dustin tosses his SuperComm on the counter, “No, I’m going!”

”Oh, no. Dustin sweetie, here,” Joyce hands him some strawberries. “Cut these up honey, you’re too wound up for Steve right now.”

He pouts, but he doesn’t argue and he lazily grabs a knife and gets to work.

Jane makes sure that Lucas is stirring like Joyce showed her, because she wants her real waffles to be _right_. Max waits for her by the door and Jane almost rushes to put on some shoes, but she spots that Max is barefoot so she just keeps walking to the door.

Max grabs her hand and Jane lets out an ‘oof’ as Max yanks her away. 

They’re running down the beach together, hand in hand and Jane’s nearly shoulder length hair is whipping in the wind. Her toes dig into the warm sand each time her feet meet the ground. And Max looks beautiful, her hair whipping in the wind, falling near her eyes and the clash of blue and red is enough to make Jane go weak in the knees.

Then she does, and because they’re hand in hand running together, they both fall to the ground, getting a face full of sand. She expects Max to be mad, because it’s only her second day here, and she barely knows this girl. But then again, she’s literally falling for this girl in a matter of two days so, whatever.

But Max only laughs and scrambles to her feet, sending sand flying into the air. Then she stands and hovers over Jane and offers her hand. She stands over Jane, blocking the sunlight, and Jane can feel herself smiling as the star illuminates the area around Max’s head, giving the illusion of a halo.

Jane grabs ahold of her hand, and she gets up to her feet. She’s ready to move on down the beach, but Max touches her elbow and points to the house in front of them.

”Looks like you fell in the right place,” She says, walking up the wooden steps to the door. “We’re here.”

She holds out her hand and makes a fist, and Jane’s shoulder go up to her ears, because she can physically feel the knock that Max is going to unleash on the door, but before she can, she hears a grunt and _shit! fuck fuck! this was a bad idea_ coming from above her head. She looks up and spots a tangle of limbs attempting to escape a tiny window.

” _Steve_?”

Clearly not expecting anyone to see him, he flinches hard, and loses his grip and he’s slipping on the roof. He rocks back and forth on his heels, and Jane can feel Max tense up beside her. She holds out her hands, as if she could catch him if he fell. 

His rocking doesn’t help, and Jane is smart enough to know that a supposed lack of sleep isn’t doing much for his _agility_. That’s a word for today.

After what seems like, a year, he finally falls and - he’s up a lot higher than Jane presumed. He’s falling, and sure there’s sand but, he’s likely to break a couple of bones, so she tilts her head down and furrows her brow and she softens his fall. Or rather, she like, held his bones in place so they wouldn’t snap and like puncture his lungs or something.

Max yells, “Holy shit!” And she’s running over to Steve, so she doesn’t see Jane when she wipes her nose with the back of her hand.

Jane jogs over to Steve too, and she looks at him in fake bewilderment, as if she couldn’t believe he didn’t break some bones.

Max kicks at him, and sand dusts up into his eyes, “Fucking _ow_ , Max!”

”That’s what you get, you idiot.” She kicks at the sand again, and he has sense enough to close his eyes this time. “Why were you climbing out of your window?”

He scrambles to get up and he dusts his hands off on his pants, “I - I’m sneaking out.”

”To where?” Max yells again and Steve shushes her and looks back at his house with a worried expression. Max looks back too, and she catches on and her features soften.

Jane understands too. Yeah she knows because she eavesdropped but she _knows_. 

“Let’s go,” Jane says, reaching out and grabbing Steve’s hand. “We’re making breakfast.”

Steve lets her drag him along and Max hangs at his other side. He looks at for a moment and just stares and then he asks, “Is Jonathan home?”

Max squints as the wind picks up and she shakes her head, “Nancy’s.”

Steve just hums at her answer, and for a moment the only noise is the wind and the waves gently crashing against one another.

”So, you were okay last night?” Max asks.

Jane takes notice that they’re walking slower than usual.

Steve nods his head, “Yeah, yeah I was fine. He wasn’t even there when I got home.”

”I could tell you were fine.” Max says.

Steve whips around and Jane can’t see his face anymore, “What do you mean you could tell?” But she can still hear the confusion in his voice.

”No storm.” 

“Max, I’m gonna need a little more than a two word sentence.” He stops for a moment, as if he’s taking in a thought, “Y’know what, I don’t even think a sentence with two words _is_ a sentence.”

Max sighs and tries to pick up sand in her toes as she walks, avoiding his gaze. “It’s just that, whenever _it_ happens, there’s like crazy weather, or something.”

”Every time?” He asks.

Max just nods her head, and the conversation is ended as they reach the Byers’ door, but the thoughts never stop racing in Jane’s head.

Steve bursts through the door and it’s like all conversation of what they think Jane doesn’t know about, is out of the window. Out of sight, out of mind, they say.

He takes in a big whiff of the good smelling breakfast fumes and smiles big and goofy, “Smells like mama’s cooking!”

There’s a cacophony of _Steve!_ in numerous teenage boy voices, and one sweet lady, too. Even Jim comes down from the stairs, looking soft and scruffy. Jane runs to him and squeezes him tight as everyone crowds around Steve.

”You doing okay, kid?”

She nods furiously against his chest and says, “Never better.”

He ruffles her hair and she looks up at him, “Are you doing okay?”

He smiles at her and nods, and he gives her one last squeeze and she heads off to the kitchen where everyone gravitated. She looks behind her as she goes, just to make sure that Jim is following.

She comes in as Mike pokes Steve in the side, “What the hell, Wheeler?”

Mike just shrugs, “Just checking for bruises, man.”

Steve rubs at the spot where Mike pokes him, “You could just ask, like a person instead of...poking me. Fucking _ow_ , man.”

”Jane, I think I did you justice.” She hears Lucas’ voice behind her and she turns around, fast enough to make her neck ache in pain but she doesn’t care because Lucas is holding a plate of towering waffles, and Jane could almost cry.

She reaches out to grab one, but Joyce swats at her hand and giver her a motherly scowl, “Wait until we’re at the table. Dustin already ate two pieces of bacon.” She grabs Jane by the shoulders and guides her to the dining room, “Now, grab a seat and Hop and I will bring the food out.”

As they sat around the table and passed plates and bowls around, it reminded Jane of when she would rarely cut off her soaps and watch a family sitcom. And she realized it then, that these people are her family now.

And when Jane bit into her first real waffle, she shot Lucas a look of disbelief. And when he looked at her with gratitude, she smiled right back.

 _Plink_ , another puzzle piece lands.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short chapter today, i have something cooking up for this. and i have another one shot i want to post for my series!!


	4. stefano’s promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first! season! three! i stayed up for eight hours when it dropped and it was honestly so nerve wracking i lit rally held my pee for like eight hours. the sauna test is the superior episode. anyways, so this story will kind of(??) follow the storyline of that except hopper and billy (i guess) both live.
> 
> also y’all mind if i give lucas an older sister? imagine alisha boe. thank you :)

* * *

 

She’s in a beemer.

A bee em double u, a pretty red car that’s too shiny on both the inside and out, it has Jane gingerly sitting inside once they make the decision to head to Starcourt Mall.

Steve laughs at her as him, Dustin and Max are already inside, and she’s still making her way in, “Come on, it’s fine.”

He looks at her in a way that says, ‘ _hey, i understand, kid_ ’ so she plops down in the car and reaches for her seatbelt. When it clicks into place Steve gives her a smile and taps in the dash twice, _pat pat_. Then he throws the car in gear, and they’re off.

He’s humming a song under his breath, something that Jane had never heard before and before she could ask, he starts to speak.

”So, why am I driving you shitheads to the mall?” He says, looking into the rearview mirror for a quick second.

”Because you _loooove_ us!” Max says in a sing song voice, and Jane ignores how her heart picked up at that.

Steve makes a straight line with his mouth and raises his eyebrows, “Sure, okay. I’ll just - just ask again.”

”Why am I -“

Dustin rolls his eyes, “ _Because_ , Steve! Jane needs to be introduced to the wonders of the world.”

Steve scoffs, “I’m sure that Jane has been to a mall before.“ He looks to Jane for confirmation and _no_ , she has never been to a mall before, but she nods tentatively anyways.

”Yeah but, she’s never been to a mall in _California_.” Max counters back.

Steve thinks about it for a minute, and a smile plays at the corners of Jane’s mouth when he says, “Right. Yeah that makes sense.”

Dustin pipes up again, while holding his arm out of the window, “And so you can see -“ He looks to Max and they both sport evil and mischievous smiles, “ _Roooobinnn_!” They both say at the same time.

“Robin?” Jane asks.

Max leans forward in her seat from the back, “She’s like - the only friend Steve has his age.”

”Oh wait! Or _Delaney_!” Dustin adds, he drags this name out, nice and slow and Jane doesn’t get it at first.

Max knocks Dustin on the head, “Delaney isn’t even back yet, doofus.”

Jane whips around to look at Dustin in the back seat, “Who’s..Delaney?”

“Lucas’ older sister, she’s _so_ cool. Cooler than Steve that’s for sure.” Dustin says while pulling on his seatbelt. “She comes back from her Nana’s tomorrow.”

Jane is still turned around in her seat, but she turns her head to look at Steve, “Girlfriend?”

Steve just shakes his head shyly and he doesn’t meet her eyes, “No, no she’s - she’s not my girlfriend.”

Dustin pipes up from the back, “No, that’s where Jonathan comes in.”

Jane leans in the backseat a little more, almost slipping out of her seatbelt, “Jonathan’s his girlfriend?”

”Jesus, shut up Dustin. You’re so annoying.” Steve throws in, and Jane can’t see the way his knuckles tighten around the steering wheel.

Dustin keeps going, “Steve and Jonathan have this _thing_.”

”Dustin, that’s enough.” Max says as she notices Steve and how quiet he’s become.

Dustin waves his hand at her, “Come _on_ \- like _everyone_ knows. Even _Nancy_ knows, why do you think Jonathan has been at home for like - an _hour_ in the past two weeks.”

Jane wants to process someone possibly being like her, liking - differently. Does Steve like Jonathan like Jane likes Max? She wants to ask so badly, could he be like her? Did he shove it down too? Did his dad tell him that it was the 80’s and that it was dangerous to do that?

”Dustin come on, shut up!” Max tries again, breaking Jane from her bubbling thoughts of hope.

Jane feels a buzzing of energy, something rising and before she could ask, someone is talking _again_.

Dustin cuts her off and keeps going and going and it’s here that Jane learns that Dustin Henderson doesn’t have an off switch, “I mean Jonathan or Delaney, _Jonathan_ or _Delaney_ \- Steve pick one!”

” _Dustin, shut up_!”

The back window shatters and glass goes everywhere.

Jane stares at him, wide eyed and her chest is heaving. He’s gripping on the wheel so tight he’s sure to have welts, and when she leans back in her seat, tears are welling in his eyes. He’s breathing and shaking so hard that the little curl of hair that falls over his eyes is shaking.

She sees the exact moment where he snaps out of whatever _that_ was, and he pulls over. And when he slowly unbuckles his seat belt and exits the car, the rest of them follow, Jane thinks that she and him are alike in more ways than one.

He clears his throat and walks around to the back of the car, and the sun bounces off of the glass in his hair, “You guys alright?”

Dustin and Max nod slowly, both occupied with dusting the glass off of them and patting at their scratches.

Steve’ still staring at the back window, and he almost seems emotionless when he says, “There’s - the uh, first aid kit is in - in the glove compartment.

They both look at each other with a look of concern. Their scratches must grab their attention more than Steve, because after a second of staring they both make their way to the passenger side, leaving Jane at the back with Steve.

And Jane expects him to yell, to break down and beat his fists on the car like she had seen in her soaps so many times, but he’s still staring at the car.

”Steve?” Jane can barely hear herself when she speaks.

He’s still looking when he says, “Yeah?”

She moves a little closer to him, “Are you alright?”

Then, he looks at her, like he’s just noticing that she’s here, with him. She can see Dustin and Max from the corner of her eye, and they’re staring in confusion as they watch this - this _change_.

”My window is broken.” He says, like he wasn’t _there_ when it happened.

”Steve, buddy, you okay?” Dustin asks.

Steve just looks back at his window, “ I uh - I’ve got to get you guys home.”

”Dude, what? We’re supposed to go to the mall!” 

“My _window_ is _broken_.” Steve says with a bite. “My dad is going to kill me if this isn’t fixed. So you’re going _home_.”

Dustin just nods softly, “Okay, Steve.”

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose and walks over to Dustin, “I’m sorry, okay? My dad is just - he’ll kill me okay? I’ll take you to the mall tomorrow, promise.” He looks around to all of them, “I promise.”

He shrugs off his jacket and wipes the glass out of the back seat so that they can sit down in it. Jane hops back in the front seat, and Steve shakily starts the car, and he turns it around.

The ride is silent and uncomfortable, like they’ve all seen something that they shouldn’t have. And to be fair, they did.

  
When Dustin is dropped off, Max stretches her legs out into the whole back seat. When Max is dropped off, at her actual house because her mom _misses_ her, Jane stays stiff in the front seat.

When they arrive at Jane’s house, Steve cuts off the car and he just sits there, so Jane does too. Steve feels an overwhelming sense of awkwardness, so he attempts small talk, because the new girl who is only a little strange is still sitting in his car.

“So, do you like Cali so far?” He asks with a fractured tone.

Jane glances out of the window and squints when she catches the sun in her gaze. "Yes. It feels like home."

She has so many things she wants to ask, but the air around them is still buzzing, still buzzing and she knows that Steve is like her in some way, and she doesn’t want another window to break. 

She turns her head to look at him and his head his tilted and he looks at her with a slight frown, "Hawkins was like San Diego?"

"No, no," Jane shakes her head and curses herself slightly, as she's still learning how to talk to people. Her time here in California is the most she's ever talked, and to this many new people, it was slightly overwhelming. "I mean that, it feels good. It feels like _me_."

He smiles wide at that, and a curly piece of his hair falls over his eyes. "Yeah, this place will do that to you."

The air turns soft, and the awkwardness dissipates, and Jane feels a little better.

"You're not from here?" She asks.

He stares out of the windshield in front of him and a fond smile crosses his features, "No. Italy."

Italy. Jane’s heard of Italy before. She knows pizza and spaghetti and lots of things with tomato sauce from there, and she knows of their accents, and the leaning tower of _something_ , she can’t remember. But now, seeing Steve light up at the mention of it, she wants to know everything about the place.

”Do you remember it?”

She watches his face as he thinks, then he holds up his hand, almost like he’s pressing his pointer finger and thumb together, “Un po’.”

He smiles after that and says, “That means ‘a little bit’ in italian. I remember bits and pieces.”

She pauses for a moment and listens to the waves crash against each other behind them.

Jane turns back to Steve, “Mama or papa?”

He looks at her with a confused look, “Hm?”

”Who’s italian, your mama or papa?”

He looks down at his hands and he smiles, but when Jane peers to look at him, it doesn’t quite meet his eyes, “My ma.”

Jane touches his hand with hers, “What’s she like?” She also wants to ask where she is, but Jim has taught her about sensitive topics. So she doesn’t go there, not yet at least.

He looks at her again, “Pretty.”

”Yeah?” Jane says.

His eyes light up a little bit and his smile gets a little fonder, “Yeah, blonde hair, hazel eyes - people used to say I get mine from her.”

He pauses for a moment before he clears his throat and turns his head to stare out of the window, “Her name’s Theresa, but uh - most people called her Terry.”

Jane feels a pit in her stomach, “Terry?”

”Yeah, weird nickname I know. Like - why even have a nickname for Theresa anyways?”

Terry. Kind of like Terry Ives. Jane’s mother. But Jane knows that that isn’t possible. She lived in Hawkins, and Steve lives in California. Theresa was a common name, Jane thinks, she’s not entirely sure.

The funny air is back, Steve sniffles, “I need to uh -“ He points to the back “- need to get my window fixed.”

She smiles at him and exits the car, and when she walks to the doorstep and looks back at his car, she sees a tear fall out of his eye, and the buzzing energy is back.

And when Jane spots a lightning strike in the distance, another puzzle piece falls into place, and she wants to strike it off the board.


	5. the red head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im crying

* * *

When Jane wakes up, the name Delaney rings throughout the house and ricochets into her bedroom. She glances at the clock on the bed with the bright red number and it reads: nine one three.

She sluggishly eases herself out of bed, and throws on jeans and a t shirt that Joyce gave her. It’s mainly white, but the trim of the sleeves and collar are a maroon color.

Jane opens the door to her room, and hears excited chatter from Will and Max, a slightly annoyed tone from Lucas and a new voice she hadn’t heard before.

She makes her way down the stairs, and because Jane is so sneaky - like a ninja - the stair that she usually skips over creaks, and the conversation stops. 

Jane spots a tall girl, and she’s pretty. Dark skin, brown hair with highlights, sort of like Jane’s but long. She looks so soft yet - not soft at the same time. She stands next to Lucas, an arm thrown around his shoulder.

Jane eases down the steps and her feet brace against the wood floors, “You’re Delaney.”

The girl - Delaney steps toward Jane a little bit, moving her arm from around her brother. “Yeah, I’m Delaney.” She looks back to her brother and to the party, and when she looks back to Jane, she seems confused, “Who are you, exactly?”

And oh, _yeah_. 

“I- I’m Jane.”

Delaney’s face lights up and then she’s smothering Jane with a hug, and she’s not even all that mad about it. The girl steps back and tucks her hair behind her ears.

”You’re _Jane_ , oh my god - you’re adorable.”

Lucas rolls his eyes from behind her, “Dude, she’s fourteen not five.”

Delaney just ignores him, “Lucas and Dustin called me when you came and they told me _all_ about you.” Jane smiles at that. “So of course, I couldn’t wait to meet you.”

Jane goes to speak again, but she’s met with a blank and then, before it gets awkward, the door opens and two voices that she is definitely familiar with fill the room.

”Dustin it’s nine o’ clock, you’re not ordering a fucking milkshake.”

”Steve, we’re going to a carnival. _Of course_ I’m ordering a milkshake.”

”Your mom said no, dipshit.”

”Remember when you yelled at me yesterday, remember that? I’m hurt, _Stefano_. You owe me.”

”I literally don’t fucking care, and don’t call me that you _nerd_.”

”Hey!”

The both stop in their tracks as they come in the front door, and their annoyed expressions quickly turn into something else when they spot Delaney in the middle of the room.

” _Delaney_.” Steve says breathlessly, a small smile reaching his lips.

Delaney has a smile that matches his own, even though she’s trying and failing to hide it, “Hey, Steve.”

”You’re - you’re back,” He says as he steps closer to her and closes the door behind him without looking. “I mean I - I _knew_ you’d be back today but you know. You - you look _great_ , really.

”You look good too, Steve.”

They just stand there, nodding and smiling at each other. The door opens again, letting the sunlight spill inside the house once more. As the sound of the noisy waves fill the room, Delaney shifts her attention from Steve, to behind him.

Her lips part and her brows knit together, “Hey..”

Steve looks confused too, at first, and he opens his mouth to speak, and Jane learns that Steve needs a little prompting when it came to certain things. Jane catches his eye and gestures behind him with her head.

He turns around, and the arm he has around Dustin falls limp at his side.

”Jon?”

And if it weren’t for the numerous pictures that litter the shelves and the walls, Jane wouldn't even know who Jonathan is. She’s a new member in this family, she has been for almost a full week now, and they’ve never even met. She’s living in his house, a house he’s been avoiding because of Steve, apparently.

The one person in here that she doesn’t know, besides Delaney, is a girl standing behind Jonathan. She’s met two new girls today and in the world of physical appearances, they look nothing alike. Which, Jane is grateful for because sometimes these people started to all look the same if she’s being honest.

Jonathan and the mystery girl both step inside the house, leaving the door open so a little sand gets blown in the doorway. Jane sends it back out secretly with a flick of her little finger.

The girl steps towards him and looks him directly in the eyes, and Jonathan does the same, only from a short distance.

”Hi, Steve.”

He just nods at her, “Nancy.”

For a moment, the three of them just stare back and forth at each other, engulfing the room in an uncomfortable silence once again.

Jane has never been in this house when it’s quiet, the silence now is so loud her ears are ringing. The house feels wrong now, and Jane remembers a lesson in breaking the ice. Small talk.

”Steve, are we still going to the mall?” She asks, referencing his promise from the day before.

She hears multiple sighs of relief at her voice and Steve turns away from the newbies and turns to Jane.

He starts to speak, but suddenly Jane has a face full of Dustin, “Change of plans, we’re going to the _carnival_ instead.”

Then suddenly, almost as if a switch was flipped, the room is erupted in noise and at least one hundred statements of, “I wanna go too, Steve!”

Jane giggles as Steve pinches the bridge of his noise, he claps his hands and goes, “Hey, hey, hey!”

He turns to Dustin and waggles his pointer finger in his face, “You have to stop doing that. I have one car Dustin - _one car_!”

”It’s the carnival, Steve!” Dustin yells, like Steve would say, ‘ _you’re right dustin, it’s the fucking carnival_!’

Steve puts his hands on Dustin’s shoulders, “There are _six_ of you!”

Delaney speaks up while tucking her hair back behind her ears, “Seven.”

”Eight.” Joyce says as she raises her hand in a little wave.

Jim steps next to Jane, and puts a heavy hand on his shoulder, “Nine.”

Then, Jonathan and Nancy both look at each other, an unsure expression on their faces. Then Nancy says, “Eleven.”

Jane knew that was coming, but she still flinches a little at the mention of the number.

Steve opens his mouth to protest, but Joyce is throwing the keys to the van at him, and because it’s Steve he misses them completely and they fall to his feet.

Mike moves to pick them and he hands them to Steve, “God, you _suck_.”

”He has like, five concussions leave him alone.” Max says as she kicks at Mike’s shin.

They all usher out of the house, scrambling to put on shoes, and Steve frowns when he spots Joyce and Jim getting into a separate car. He turns to look at Jane as he unlocks the big van door, "Can you believe them?"

Jane just shrugs and slides into the big seat in the middle, and tenses a little when she finds Jonathan already sitting there. He smiles at her a little, and she smiles back, she tries to anyways. The others slide into the car, breaking the somewhat awkward but peaceful silence. Max slides in beside her and smiles up at her, and it's so weird because her eyes are different sometimes. One minute they're a striking blue. Jane could look at Max's eyes and then at the blue surface of the sky above them and she wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And other times, they're almost _silverish_. Almost like rain water, with a tinge of blue. It's weird, red hair and blue eyes, but Jane isn't normal by any definition of the word. And because she can't imagine Max any other way, she doesn't mind. 

"Jane?" A voice echoes in her head before it clears, and she realizes that Max is speaking to her.

"Yes?"

Max frowns a little before smiling wide, her cheeks puffing up, "Were you even listening?"

"No." Jane says sheepishly.

Max just laughs and nudges into Jane with her shoulder. Steve starts the car and looks back at everyone. He turns back around and sighs, "Mike, put on your fucking seat belt."

Jane hears a refusal from Mike and he tells Nancy, "He told me to choke on my fries the other day."

That gets a stern, "Steve," from Nancy. He doesn't respond, he just speeds up and the van tumbles over a large pot hole in the road, and Mike's head hits the back of Jane's headrest. 

Mike rubs his head and Jane's ears ring when he screams. "What the fuck, Steve!"

Steve glances at him in the rearview mirror with mock concern on his face, "Oh. I'm sorry, did - did that _hurt_?

"You piece of shit!"

 Jane giggles quietly and she can feel Jonathan's shoulder shake beside her, and she sees that he's laughing too. 

Max nudges her arm, grabbing Jane’s attention, “I said that tonight, when we get back,” She leans in real close, closer than that night in Max’s room, and Jane doesn’t breathe, “I’m gonna tell you what happened, with Will.”

”We all are.” And Jane flinched up so hard that her head hit the roof of the van and the culprit behind the voice, Mike, only giggled at her.

Dustin yells from the front seat, “Steve, _drive_!”

” _What_ do you think I’m doing?!”

Dustin bangs on the dashboard and gestures wildly, arguing with Steve, “Suzie is coming and I don’t want to be late!”

Everyone, everyone in the van groaned loudly and gave hundreds of protests. Dustin turned around and yells at everyone, spit goes flying and Jane scoots in closer to Max to avoid the spray. And that same mantra blares throughout her mind when Max puts her arm around Jane and whispers, “Suzie’s the _worst_.”

And somehow, she gets even closer to her and says, “I’ll tell you later.”

 _It’s the 80’s, kid_.

She shuffles away from Max and just smiles at her, and it doesn’t reach her eyes, Jane knows it doesn’t, she doesn’t want Max to think she’s mad at her, because she isn’t. Jane is just a - a useless lesbian.

”Who’s a useless lesbian?”

Jane flinches and whips to the voice, she finds Jonathan staring at her, confused but amused at the same time.

”What?” She asks.

He shifts his body as much as his seatbelt will let him and turns towards Jane, ducking his head down to speak softly. “You said - useless lesbian. Who is?”

Jane thinks fast, “Um. I was talking about a uh - a song.”

”A song.” He repeats flatly.

”Yes.”

He faces forward again, a smile tugging at his lips, “Okay.”

The van stops and Steve rips the key out of the ignition, “Okay we’re here. Get the fuck out.”

Mike groans in the very back, “Can you park closer? We’re like five miles away!”

”Uh _no_ , dipshit, I can’t park closer. It costs _money_.”

Mike slaps his hand beside Jane’s seat, “You give Will money all the time!”

Steve unbuckles his seat belt and leaps out of his seat, getting as close Mike as he can, “I give him _five_ dollars and parking costs _ten_ , so what now, Mike?”

Mike shuffles out of his seat, mumbling under his breath the entire time until he’s one leg out of the van, “You’re fucking useless!”

Steve just takes a deep breath and looks to Jane and Max, who’re still in the van, “I think I might accidentally forget Mike and leave him here.”

They both chuckle at him, and they all leave the car. They spot Delaney a few feet away and Steve looks at Jane and smiles, it’s not all the way there, and there’s something sad in his eyes, but he walks on anyways to catch up with her. As Jane follows him with her eyes, she spots the carnival and - oh.

She pauses her movements and her hands find each other, fiddling with one another and picking at the skin. She’s suffocating, that feeling is back. There’s no way out, no escape. She hears a soft voice call her name, but it’s so far away. Everything feels so far way but so close at the same time. She feels like she’s back in the box, feels like the puzzle board has been washed away by the waves that crash together not too far from her. She hears a voice call her name again, and hands on the small of her back, then they move to run their fingers through her hair. Jane didn’t realize that her eyes had been closed.

She opens them, and the carnival lights dance on the red hair of the soothing culprit, giving her the hair of a unicorn. They dance in her eyes too. Pink, red, blue, purple - yellow and green. Jane’s breathing calms down as she looks, and realized this girl is beautiful in any way possible, rainbow hair and eyes, or the clashing red and blue. And her voice feels like she’s fell on a bed of feathers. Max is comfort in every sense of the word. She opened the box, she let Jane out, she can breathe again.

The cloudiness leaves, and she’s basked in a new sense of clarity. Jane smiles at her, with hopeful eyes. She pulls Max in a hug, a tight one where she grips at the edges of the girls’ shirt.

”I’ll be back. I have to find my dad.”

Max’s face falters, only slightly before she recovers with a smile. Jane gives her another hug, “Thank you, Max.”

She runs off into the carnival, trying to remember the comfort of Max as she weaves through the hundreds of people. Tries to remember that she’s not boxed in. Tells herself than outside of all these people she’s out in the open. She’s free.

She spots her father with Joyce at a darts game, and she runs over. Joyce is killing him in the game, so when Jane tugs on his shirt she thinks she’s doing him a favor.

He looks at her with smile, and nods at Joyce before they walk off just a little. “What’s up kid? You okay?”

She smiles at him, “Too many people at first. I’m okay now.”

”Yeah?”

She grabs his hand and continues to walk, finding it that moving helps her talk, eases her anxiety, “Max helped me.”

He hums in satisfaction and he slows down, like he’s thinking. Jane breathes shakily, trying to gather her bearings as she thinks about what she wants to say.

”I.. I want to screw the 80’s.”

He laughs hard and quick, “What?”

Jane really has to find her grip with words.

She starts off again, slow. “When I told you, about me. You said that I couldn’t do that because - “ and she does her best gruffy old man voice - “ it’s the 80’s kid.”

He chuckles at her impression and pulls her in close and wraps an arm around her.

He sighs, “There’s..more of that here. In California.”

”More?”

”Yeah, more. People in Hawkins were, close minded. Hell if you breathed a little funny they looked at you crazy.

Jane giggles at that.

He looks down at her and smiles, “It’s the red head isn’t it?”

”Max.” Is all she says.

”Max.” He repeats, like he’s trying out her name for the first time.

He pulls away from her and puts her in front of him, he crouches down slightly to her eye level. He steadies his hands on each shoulder and gives her a hard look.

”Look, I don’t want to stop you from being who you are, I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Jane frowns, “You just want me safe.”

”Yeah - yeah I do. People, they sometimes hurt people like you. Who don’t feel the same as others. But I don’t want you to hide who you are, you shouldn’t have to.”

He pauses and moves her hands from her shoulders. He runs a hand over his face and then he just - sits. He sits on the pavement as if there aren’t hundreds of people running around.

But, Jane sits down too.

” _Jesus_ \- I. The truth is, for so long, I was afraid. Afraid that someone would hurt you, and that I would lose you. If a monster hurts you, I can kill it. If someone hurts you because of who you are, what can I do? I guess - if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. Something happening to you. I guess that’s maybe, why I told you to - to keep it under wraps.”

He sighs deeply, taking in a new breath.

“I know that’s naive, that’s just not how life works. It’s moving - all the time. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s sad. And sometimes its - _surprising_ , happy. So you know what? Talk to the red head kid, don’t let me stop you. But _please_ , if you don’t mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, be careful.”

He hugs her, and Jane cries for maybe the hundredth time in her life but it’s a good cry. It hurts in the good way. She’s so lucky to have a dad like this, who cares, who talks to her, who treats her like a _person_. He moved her, across the country so she can feel okay. He would move the whole world for her if he could. He appreciates her, and she appreciates him, too. The last person who posed as her dad, he made her feel less than, and she used to think that that was _okay_. Feeling less than. The contrast between him, and Jim, it was enough to bring her to her knees in tears. 

So on this pier, at the carnival, she cries into her father’s shirt, and she says,

”I love you, dad.”

Because she _does_ , and when he says it back her heart smiles and it mimics onto her face. And it’s here, it is _here_ , that she knows she’ll never be boxed in again. She’ll be free forever, and it’s now as footsteps dance around them, that the next puzzle piece lands, and it goes into place softly, right by the last.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im crying are u crying too
> 
> also: i made a tumblr. it’s hawkinzclub


	6. cotton candy and raindrops

Jane thinks.

As she watches her father get back into his groove with Joyce at the carnival game, she thinks. She thinks about her new life, her new family, her new home. It all dawns on her at once, blanketing her in a beautiful sense of love and hope. No more cabins, no more death, no more bad men. She's done with that, and it's done with her. That darkness can't follow her here, not in California where even at seven pm the sun still shines brightly. It's something out a movie, maybe she's seen it, maybe not. It feels _cinematic_ , her life feels too good to be a real thing. Sometimes it feels like a camera follows her everywhere she turns, waiting for the next shoe to drop, but it won't happen, it can't. 

Jane's so in her head, she bumps into a tangle of a person, all limbs and hair.

"Oof, sorry J."

It's Steve, with both hands carrying cotton candy. One red, one purple.

"You're hungry." She says gesturing to his treats.

He looks confused for longer than he should, then he catches on, staring at the candy in his hands and laughing awkwardly, "Oh - no, yeah this - this isn't for me."

He uses his head to point in a different direction and Jane spots Delaney, and Jonathan.

"Oh."

He looks to the ground for a moment, and his voice is thick when he says, "Yeah. _Oh_."

Jane holds out her hands, then she's holding a cotton candy treat and pulling Steve Harrington along the pier. They walk towards a bench directly facing the sun, it's setting slightly, illuminating the ocean waters and glittering in the sand. They sit down, and Jane eats at her cotton candy for a moment. Cherry flavored.

"Steve, are you okay?"

He looks at her, and there's something behind his eyes she can't quite place. "Yeah, fine."

"Are you lying?"

He shrugs slightly, then takes a chunk of cotton candy in his fingers and stuffs it in his mouth.

Jane grimaces, then she laughs, then she's stuffing cotton candy in _her_ mouth. They look like two crazy people just devouring cotton candy which is just like - candy flavored air. They laugh at each other and it's gross 'cause they've got cotton candy stuck to their fingers and to the corner of their mouths.

After they calm down, and after they've gotten most of the cotton candy off of them, Steve speaks.

"I'm thinking about a lot of stuff right now."

Jane scoots closer to him on the bench, "Good stuff?"

"No, no I guess not."

Jane takes a deep breath and twists her mouth in thought, "I'm thinking, too."

"Sharing time then, huh?" He says lightly.

"Sharing time." She repeats, a huge smile gathering on her face.

Steve wipes his hands on his pants and looks off to one of the carts on the pier. He stands up and digs into his pocket, giddy and happy like a little kid.

"Well, if we're gonna get all touchy, we should have food right?"

Jane nods and throws him a warm smile. He smiles back and gestures to one of the carts, "Funnel cakes."

He bounds off and Jane stares back at the sun, and it might just be her and Steve's intense happiness, but the sun seems like it's been up for longer than it's supposed to. It's mesmerizing, the pinks and the purples. The thin clouds surrounding it look like cotton candy. Jane directs her attention back to Steve and she watches as he happily hands his money to the vendor and comes bouncing back with two funnel cakes. He plops down back beside Jane, handing her one of the cakes and a spork.

She waves the spork at him like, _what is this_. He just shrugs and says, "That's all he had."

They spend a few minutes eating their cakes, and laughing whenever the other gets a heaping amount of sugar on them. Once Steve has eaten half of his, they both set their respective utensils on an empty spot on their foil plates.

Steve clears his throat, "So, you first?"

Jane squints at him.

He says, "Fine, whatever."

He breathes deeply, and he narrows his eyes as he stares at the now setting sun in front of them, "So you met Delaney, right?"

Jane nods.

"Right - cool. So she's cool and everything - " He pauses to look Jane in the eyes - "really cool. Cooler than me, even."

Jane rolls her eyes and picks her spork back up, "Steve, I get it."

"Right, of course. So, over the summer we had a thing, I think? It was never official or anything - we never even kissed. It was just like, weird shared looks and stuff y'know? Wait you're like, twelve. _Do_ you know?"

Jane says, "I'm _fourteen_ ," with a mouth full of a sugary bite.

"Sure - yeah. So yeah, just shared looks and stuff. Shared looks, shared trauma, y'know, the whole thing." He pauses for a moment and takes a bite of his funnel cake, and Jane watches as he frowns because it's gotten cold. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and continues. "Then she like - went away for a little bit, to her Nana's. Then _something_ happened."

Jane frowns, "Something?"

His face goes a little sour, and his voice is quieter, softer and Jane can barely hear him over the crashing waves in front of them. "Jon and I, we uh - y'know."

Jane nudges him with an elbow, "No, I'm twelve, I don't know."

He laughs slightly as he picks over his cake, "My dad he uh- he says it's wrong and gross. And it's like fuck him, y'know? _He's_ gross."

He swallows hard, and neither of them pick up on how the waves crash harder against each other now, the sun finally setting like it's got a deadline to meet.

"But sometimes, it feels like what he says is - is true? Jon's got a _girl_ ," A tear drops on his funnel cake, dampening the sugar, "I mean we kissed _one_ time, and I'm hung on him."

And Jane, it finally dawns on her - what he’s talking about.

Jane goes to say, "You're not gross." But he cuts her off.

"I mean, you didn't even meet him for a week, 'cause of _me_. Your rooms are across from each other - did you even know that?"

Jane didn't.

"I'm _always_ over there, he avoided his family because he knew that I would be there. _That's_ what's gross."

He laughs darkly, ripping his funnel cake apart with his spork, "I act like he's hung the fucking moon, and the next moment I'm pretending that Joyce is like - my mom or something."

"Theresa?" Jane asks, because they talked about this, Steve _has_ a mom. Who may or may not be her mom, too. She's too scared to present the idea.

He laughs again, "My mom vanished from my life when I was _four_. Dad - dad told me she met someone else, had another kid and everything."

"Three years, after she left me alone with him, it only took her three years to start a new life. And - and I'm not even mad at her. I just wish she would've brought me with her."

Three years. Steve's seventeen and Jane's fourteen.

There's no way, it's not possible it can't be. Steve's here, and Jane was _there_ , the bad place she never wants to think about again because she's _done_ with it. Darkness follows the other darkness, and as Jane stares out into the ocean in front of her, moon just beginning to replace the sun, she can't help but think that Hawkins has found her. It found her, and it wants Jane back in the box. And it wants Steve, too. She can't let that happen, but what would she even tell Steve?

H _ey I'm possibly your sister and our mom once looked for me and got her brain fried and I don't if she looked for you and you possibly have powers and oh yeah, me too._

But then, everything would change again. She might have to leave, and Jane's only lived in two places, but she's sure that no other place can measure up to the treasures she's found here. She can't lose it. She won't. She would put everyone in danger, everybody, and she won't do that. Jane may not know how to ride a bike, and she doesn't know all of the big words, and sometimes conversations can be a little trouble, but fighting and protecting; _that_ , she can do. And true, it _is_ in her nature, it's what the bad men trained her to do. And she's good at it. So if Jane's will doesn't find a way, and the darkness chases after her family, she can end it. She _will_ end it.

Steve breaks the silence, "So, your turn."

She backtracks to one of his previous statements, saying what she wanted to say earlier, "You're not gross for - liking different."

She turns her body towards him slightly, "If you're gross, then I am too."

He smiles softly, a wide look in his eyes. She nudges him with her elbow again, "You think I'm gross, Steve?"

He laughs gently and shoves her back, "Okay, okay."

"Okay ' _i think you're gross_ ' or ' _okay i'm a goof_ '?"

He laughs harder hooks her with his elbow around her neck and ruffles her her hair, " _Okay_ , I'm a goof. A _big_ goof."

He stops ruffling her, but he still holds her close to him, "It's Max, isn't it?"

She nods.

"She's gonna be skateboarding around here somewhere, it's all she does at the carnival."

All Jane says is, "Oh."

"Yeah, sometimes she'll skate by the entrance, or somewhere up here, it always changes."

"Okay?"

"God, Jane I'm saying you should go find her and be _gay_." He whispers the last part.

" _Oh_."

"Yes, _oh_. Now go! Shoo!."

She goes to run off and she's stopped when Steve grabs ahold of he hand. He smiles warmly, "Thanks, Jane."

And he doesn't need to specify which part of their time together he's thankful for, 'cause Jane knows that he means all of it. 

She smiles down at him and nods. He says, "We're not so different, you and me."

And when Jane smiles wider and walks away, she pretends that a pit doesn't manifest itself in her stomach.

:::

Jane finds Max.

Actually, she found her about five minutes ago, skating around the entrance of the carnival like Steve said she'd be. Jane just watches her, paying attention to every detail of her movements. The way her foot glides across the ground to give her momentum, the way her feet are placed strategically apart, so she can keep her balance. Max makes it look so graceful, everything she does is like an angel came down and did it for her. Jane thinks that it’s cruel, how Max is so - so put together. So complete in herself. 

She steps forward and calls out, so not to startle the other girl.

”Oh,” She says with surprise, “Hey, Jane.”

”Hi, Max.” Jane moves closer to her, watches her as he nudges her board off to the side. “I told you I would be back.”

Max gets closer, too. Jane wonders if she knows.

”Where did you go?”

Jane fiddles with her hands, almost wanting to back out, but then she stops. She’s doing this. She can’t tell Steve about their possible relation, and she can only tell so many people about who she is, so she is going to tell Max. Whether Jane herself likes it or not.

”I had to talk. Now I have to talk to you.”

”Is everything okay?”

Jane dares herself, and she follows through as she gets a little closer, “More than okay.” She takes Max’s hands in her own.

”Jane?”

Jane takes a deep breath, closes her eyes. She won’t back out, she could, but she isn’t. This is what she wants. For so long, she never got to be happy, she never got to have a life and now she does, and sometimes it doesn’t even feel real. So, if it is or isn’t, she’s gonna do what she can, while she can.

And that means, kiss the girl. With _permission_ , of course.

Jane leans in, she _does_ , but she has to pull away because,

”Hey, shitbird.”

Max flinches and sends a frightened look behind Jane. Jane turns around to follow her eyes and finds a golden boy with a mullet and dark eyes. Whoever this is, Max is scared of him, and Jane doesn’t like it one bit.

The boy moves closer, and he _actually_ grabs Max, roughly by the arm, “I _said_ \- hey _shitbird_.”

Max struggles in his grasp, “Billy, what are you doing - leave me alone.”

” _Sue_ wants you home,” He points to a bruise on his left eye, “Neil clocked _me_ , because you think you can play house anywhere except for where you actually fucking live, Maxine!”

Max sends a look towards Jane, who’s shocked to her core in her shoes. Billy follows her eyes and knocks his head back as he chuckles, he laughs with his entire body, jerking Max with his movements.

”You don’t want your little friend to watch, Maxine?”

He looks to Jane, indifferent, “Get lost, bitch.”

Jane shakes her head, firm. “ _No_.”

He laughs again, if he’s taken aback by Jane, he doesn’t show it. “Is your little friend going to _save_ you, Maxine? Is that what this is?”

He lets go of Max roughly, and saunters to Jane, evil burrowing in his eyes. “Y’know, as much fun as it would be to hurt you, I won’t waste my time.”

If only he knew.

He turns around, grinning at Max, “Y’know, where’s Harrington?” He drawls the name out, he’s eager, eager for a fight.

Max gulps and shakes her head, “Leave him alone, Billy.”

He grabs her by the arm again, snatches her up real hard and gets in her face, “ _Where is he?”_

Jane feels a buzz in the air.

“Let her go, Hargrove.”

And without turning around, Billy drops Max like she’s old news, and he smiles, ear to ear as he turns around to be met with Steve.

He walks over to Steve, putting one foot in front of the other, taunting, agonizing.

” _Pretty boy_ , just the person I wanted to see.”

Steve watches his movements carefully, “What do you want?” His voice dark, expression angry.

Both Jane and Max glance up towards the sky when they hear a rumble of thunder.

”I wanna know, why.”

Billy pauses as he pulls out a cigarette and lights it, polluting the good sea air, with that deadly shit. 

“I want to know _why_ , every time I see Maxine, I see _you_.”

Steve shrugs, “I hang around all the kids, fucks your point, _Hargrove_?”

Billy points at him with his cigarette, “ _That’s_ my point, _Harrington_. You’re always around these kids,” He points to Jane, “And who the fuck is this?”

Max speaks up, watching as Steve bubbles up with anger, like she can see it seep into his skin. “Why do you even care, Billy?”

He whips around, quick, his body hot with fire, “Mind your fucking business.”

She mutters, “Mind _your_ business.”

He leans towards her, “What was that?”

”Nothing.” Max said a little too quick.

“No, no, no, no. What did you say, Maxine?”

Steve huffs behind him, “Hargove just fucking go home, man.”

Jane can see now, that this Billy - Billy Hargrove has a hard time listening.

He turns back around and steps to Steve, gathering him by his shirt collar, slightly choking him, “Harrington, I am getting really sick of your shit.” He reels back, and he punches him.

Jane feels a rain drop on her face.

Another punch, and Jane hears the rest of the party finding their way over.

”What, pretty boy? You think you _understand_ me? ‘Cause our daddies hit on us you think you fucking _know me_?”

Max scurries over to Jane, and she can spot onlookers watching and pointing at the clouds that are forming overhead. Max looks at her, the most serious she ever has, “It’s about to storm.”

Steve pushes back on Billy with his hand, allowing himself some room. Then, his other hand connects with Billy’s jaw in a sickening crunch, Jane heard it over the pouring rain. Steve hits him again, and Billy staggers back, he goes in for another hit and knocks into Steve’s noise.

”Kick his ass, Steve!” Dustin yells over the rain.

They knock into each other, back and forth, back and forth and then Jim runs over, Joyce running frantic behind him.

Billy cackles, “You got your makeshift family to come and save you, huh, pretty boy?”

”You think they _actually_ give a shit, you’re just the money bag, bitch.”

And when Steve doesn’t react, and when lighting strikes the street lamp at the exact moment Billy reels in for another punch, Steve catches his fist in hand, and he squeezes. He squeezes until a crunch can be heard. And then he’s laying into Billy, punch after punch, he doesn’t let up.

But Billy’s a fighter, and he punches too. They just stand there, dancing around each other, molding the others face like pottery.

And when it looks like Steve has just about had enough, he throws his arm back and Jane pulls Max close, she knows this one is going to hurt. The thunder rumbles so loud and hard that the vendor carts shake. And when Steve’s hand lands on the same bruise Billy’s  father left on him, the lights around them flicker out, along with Billy’s.

The rain slowly lets up, and people start to fizzle out, just like that. Like what they just witnessed doesn’t even matter. The party, and Jane and Joyce and Jim all run over to the two boys, they fawn over Steve, praising him.

All he says is, “Ds’tin, yo’r up’sde dwn.”

Then he falls to the ground, and only little children’s screams can be heard as the loudest rumble of thunder Jane has ever heard ripples back and forth through her ears.

There’s a puzzle piece, of course there is. But it hovers over the board, Jane isn’t quite sure where it fits.


	7. the possible and the impossible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE GAY

They leave the scene just as quickly as the storm stops. They crowd around Steve, hoisting him up and cringing at his wet clothes and skin. They leave Billy on the wet ground, groaning softly and rolling over slowly. Jane doesn't miss the way that Max tries to hurry the process along, with every step they make with Steve she looks over her shoulder to make sure Billy's still down.

Jane would ask her about it later.

Eventually, Jim gets tired of the scuffling. Jane can see that he's appreciative of all the kids trying to help their favorite person, but, time is of the essence. He pushes them back and puts Steve over his shoulders. They make it to the car faster, Joyce hops in the drivers seat. Max, Jane, Dustin, and Will in the second row and Jim lays Steve across their laps. Jim hops in the passenger and everyone else gets in the last row of the van. Joyce turns the key and after a few breath stopping sputters, the van roars to life and she reverses out of the spot without looking, and she gets a couple of honks from a car Joyce doesn't bother to look at. She drives a little faster than normal, her hands move nervously around the wheel, and Jane catches her glancing at Steve in the rear view mirror every few seconds. A few minutes after the pier is left behind by a stretch of road, Steve groans and his eyes blink open slowly.

Joyce glances up at the rearview, she looks away, then looks again when she sees that Steve is conscious, "Steve, honey, I am driving you to a hospital _right_ _now_ , okay sweetie?"

He groans at her words, but it goes unheard when Jim speaks, "The _hospital_ , Joyce?"  

She scoffs and twists her head a little, "He has a _concussion_ , Hop."

"How do you know he has a concussion?"

Joyce lets one hand up off of the wheel as she explains to Jim, "This is his _third concussion_ , Hopper!"

Jim twists in his seat, lacking a seat belt and he grabs on the handle that sits just above the passenger window, "How do you know that, Joyce?"

Jane hears a mumble below her, "No hs'pitl."

She lifts her head to tell Joyce, but she's cut off when the van jerks slightly, and hugs the shoulder of the road. Joyce glances down at the wheel and grips it with a little more force when it does it again for a second time, when Jim and Will shoot her concerned glances, she says,

"I've needed to get this - this steering fixed for a while now."

Jane nods, even though the statement was to Joyce herself instead of anyone else. Jane looks to Max, who's been stiff beside her ever since they got in the car. Jane reaches under Steve's torso and grabs the girls hand. Max has a surprised look for just a second until she looks at Jane and gives her a small smile, which Jane returns. The chaos stops for a moment, now as they look at each other, it's quiet and sweet, almost like everything is rotating around them. Their eye contact only breaks when Steve jerks forward and sits up abruptly. And that - buzzing is back again, only it's stronger. But when Steve looks Jane directly in the eyes, she feels the energy hover, like someone coiling back for a punch and waiting for the right moment to throw it.

He frowns, and his mouth is slightly open, "Where are we going?" He says it so slow and pieced together than Jane thinks he sounds like her when she first started to speak more than twenty words a day.

Jane tilts her head in confusion, and beside her Max shuffles as close as she can, she says, "Steve, you didn't hear?"

He's still looking at Jane when he shakes his head.

In the corner of Jane's eye, she can see Max glance at her, but Jane doesn't look at her, she’s stuck in Steve’s gaze like he cast a line and she got baited to the hook. 

Jane frowns at him, “Steve, we’re taking you to the hospital. You have a... a concussion.”

Only then does he turn to look at Joyce, and he completely moves up from Max and Jane and places himself directly in the space between the passenger and driver seat. 

Jim’s mouth gapes in surprise and he turns to look at him, “Kid _what the hell_ are you doing?”

Steve just shakes his head, “I don’t want to go to the hospital.” But it’s slurred, gargly and his voice is thick as his mouth is close to being swollen shut.

Joyce grips the wheel tighter and steels her gaze forward, “Honey, you’re hurt. I am taking you to the hospital, no negotiations.”

”I can’t go,” Steve shakes his head and rubs at his mouth and he ignores the blood that comes back, “My dad he’ll - he’ll.”

He groans in frustration, “I just can’t go. Take me home, Mrs. Byers. _Please_.”

Jim’s still turned to the boy when he asks, “Who’s the president?”

Steve scoffs in annoyance and shrugs, “I don’t know, I - I don’t pay attention in geometry.”

” _Geometry_?” Dustin exclaims from the back, and everyone shares a concerned look and they jerk forward as Joyce presses her foot to the gas pedal.

Steve’s thrown in between Max and Jane due to not wearing a seat belt and his head knocks  roughly against the seat. His breathing gets ragged and Max start to rub his shoulder, awkwardly as she can’t really get to his back.

”Steve, you’re okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

He shakes his head and lets a few tears go loose, “No, my dad.”

“The doctors - they don’t have to contact his dad right?” Max asks as she tries to console Steve, “Can they call his mom?”

She directs her attention back to Steve, “Where’s your mom, Steve?”

And, Jane felt like Max should’ve known already, about his mom. They’re so close, he’s close with all of the kids. But that only proves more that he doesn’t really know anything about her, but Jane does. She knows, because she’s sure now. In his state of distress and confusion, Jane can see the similarities between him and her. The brown hair, slightly tan skin, big brown eyes.

”I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

And, another similarity.

The van veers off to the right. Jim goes, “Joyce, _drive_!”

She yells at him and gestures to her hands on the wheel, “What do you think I’m _doing_?”

”You’re obviously not driving, what - do you want all of us to be admitted into the hospital?”

With their arguing and the worried chatters in the back Jane almost missed when Steve says, “I _said_ I don’t wanna go!”

Delaney reaches from the back and tries to reach for his head, “Steve, you’re gonna be okay.”

He flinches away from her, and when he yells it’s eerie, and scary because his mouth is getting more swollen by the minute and he doesn’t even sound human, anymore. “I’m _already_ okay, I don’t want to go.”

The van veers again and this time, it keeps veering until they’re off the road and driving into the sand of a nearby beach. Luckily it’s closed.

Jane feels that pulsating, that punch and it’s getting ready to land. “Steve, stop.” She tries, he only screams. And it isn’t deafening, no, it’s loud, it’s heard and it pierces their ears and even though she wasn’t even in control of the van anymore, Joyce takes her hands off the wheel and puts her hands to her ears.

Jane puts her hands on Steve, tries to calm him down but it only makes things worse, only makes him scream louder, the van goes faster and they start barreling towards the ocean waters.

She looks at Jim, who’s gripping the door handle for dear life, and in the other hand he holds Joyce’s, and they don’t even realize what’s really happening. That it’s not the van, it’s Steve.

But, they will.

Jane takes her hands off her ears, lets the broken screams ablaze in her mind and she tilts her head, glowers her eyes at Steve, and she focuses. And it’s not as easy, because although an amateur in a way, Steve’s powerful, and he doesn’t look tired. He just fought Billy, he’s concussed and he’s still powerful. She groans, as she feels a painful pinch at the back of her head. The car jerks slightly, and there’s a small break in Steve’s screaming as he gasps, feeling a sudden shift in the air. But then he starts back, going even harder than before.

And no one notices her, not yet anyways. And she doesn’t want to, doesn’t want to fight. They’ll have to leave, and this mantra is on a broken loop in her head but she wants to stay. But, she can’t exactly do that if they’re all drowning in the pacific. She thinks it’s the pacific.

She groans again, and it doesn’t go unnoticed this time. Through the screaming, through all the fear, she can faintly make out Max asking her if she’s okay. The van goes over a rock and Steve's head knocks against his seat again and it only makes him scream louder, makes his powers go into overdrive. Then, as she’s on her last battery it feels like, Jane screams too, and then when the van turns away from the ocean, it’s just her and her _brother_ , yelling, fighting for the upper hand. Jane holds her hand out as the van makes it way back onto the road, and she cocks it hard, and Steve’s out like a light.

And when it’s all done and Jane can feel Max’s eyes studying her entire face, she doesn’t look back at the girl, due to fear. Fearing that Max wouldn’t look at her in the way that Jane thinks she does, like she’s special. Like she’s someone, something, a wonder that Max would have the credit for discovering. Now, Jane feels dangerous, like a hazard to Max and everyone else.

But, like a drop of paint into water, Max touches her. Touches her hand, touching the base of her knuckle and that’s when Jane finally looks at her. And Max doesn’t look frightened, or confused, or disgusted. She looks - intrigued. Intrigued, fascinated, enthralled, obsessed. All words that Jane has heard before, she can read you the definition from the book. But this is _raw_ , real, something that even the perfect words can’t describe. 

 

When they make it back home, Steve’s still asleep in the living with the others, but Jane and Jim are in the kitchen. Jim’s upset. Joyce is confused.

”What were you thinking?” He yells, and the chatter in the living room stops momentarily as he slams his hand on the counter.

Jane frowns and breathes through her nose, “I was _helping_.”

He holds out his hands to her, moves them around as he talks, “What did we _just_ talk about, huh?”

Jane frowns again, but in confusion. “Max?”

Jim scoffs and rubs at his beard, “We talked about being careful. About being _safe_.”

”I’m confused.” Jane says.

”About _what_?”

She slams her hand on the counter this time, “We’re _fine_ , they don’t care. We are safe. I was safe.”

”Oh, what. You thought playing remote control with the van was safe? You doing party tricks for your new friends - did you tell them?”

”No.”

”Then, why.”

She twists her mouth in frustration and grits her teeth, “It wasn’t _me_.”

And he moves to speak, his muscles contracting in anger, his mouth forming into s yell, but she sees it clear as day, that something clicks for him. It washes over his face, and his shoulders fall in defeat. It looks like he’s replaying the moment in his mind, reliving it. Catching Steve’s screams, piecing together that they weren’t from pain, not completely.

”I’ll call Owens.”

 

”Okay, now make me fly!”

”Dustin, shut up!”

/

 

”Jane, I don’t want to get up, can you float my drink over here?”

/

”You can find people, can you find things too? Maybe the rest of Steve’s brain cells.”

They hear a moan of pain, “Fucking shut up, Mike.”

They all rush to the lump of a human on the couch and crowd around him, all except for Jane. They try and touch his face, which he swats at, and he gets yelled at for trying to kill them. Teasingly of course, albeit a murderous glare from Nancy. They pester him, they ask him what else he can do.

He says, “I don’t know.”

And with his breath of the unknown blowing out the flame of child interest, they turn their attention to Jane again, and while they ask her if she can make their pee disappear, she shys away from the questioning gaze of Steve. The excitement from the others, and the weariness from him, it’s too much.

She asks to be excused, and she goes to her room and she shuts the door.

/

She must’ve fallen into a deep sleep, by the the time she wakes it’s morning. She stretches her arms and flinches when she knocks into something solid.

Jane hears a muffled, “Ow.”

She moves the pillow from which the voice hides under, “Max?”

She turns to look at Jane, scrunches her nose in embarrassment, “Hi?”

Jane giggles slightly and settles back down against the covers, “What are you doing?”

”I came to see you last night - to make sure you were okay. But you were asleep.”

Jane smiles, “And you stayed?”

Max looks down at the rustled covers, “I guess I did.”

They sit there for a while, lying face to face. Quiet, all except for their breathing and the crash of the waves just outside the window. When the rising sun shines in, it almost looks like the carnival, right when Jane realized all what she wanted to say. And after getting side tracked by her dad, Steve, Billy Shitgrove and then Steve, again, she never got to say it.

Jane turns on her back and stares up at the ceiling, Max follows suit.

”Max?”

”Yes?”

”Can I tell you something, even if it’s bad, even if you don’t like it?”

”Yes, but I don’t think anything you say will turn me away.”

”Okay.”

She just lays there for a few minutes, breathing. She soaks in her friendship with Max, thinks of the few days she’s known her and cherishes them. Holds them close, just in case Max does turn away from her, even though she said she wouldn’t.

”When I found you, skating around at the carnival, I just stopped and watched you. You were amazing, I thought: you were an angel.”

Jane swallows hard, waits for a reaction. She gets none, she continues.

”And even before then, when I first met you, something woke up, I think. I don’t know what woke it up, maybe your blue eyes, or your red hair to match. _Something_ stirred me awake. And I was so scared to be around you, I was so scared that I would mess it all up. I tried to shove it down, even if I just had to settle with being your friend, I would’ve been fine with that.”

When a tear slides down the side of her face, she doesn’t wipe it away. “But I have a rule, friends don’t lie.”

Jane shudders out a breath, “And I’m your friend, and I can’t lie to you. Not even if I’m lying to myself.”

She tries to find the right words, thinks of her lovey romance movies that she hates to watch, but loves to hate. “I..feel like I crash landed here, in a place that is somehow too good to be true. And you’re like one of those - people, where I landed is your home. And you’re beautiful, and breathtaking, and blue, and red, and even if you had yellow hair or pink eyes it wouldn’t matter because- it’s _you_.”

”When I came to find you at the carnival, when you were skating, I was going to kiss you.”

In her side eye, Jane can see Max’s mouth open and close, open and close, and then it’s pursed shut. Jane goes to apologize, to tell her to forget about it, she was even about to run from her own room, when -

“I like you.” Max says.

She goes, “I’ve liked you for a long time. Well - not a long time I guess, ‘cause you just got here, but. I didn’t want to ignore it, I _wanted_ to be close to you, to know you, inside and out. Every night when I went to sleep, and every morning when I woke up, I thought about you - Jane Hopper. I thought about you and your honey brown eyes, and I thought about any and every way - anything I could do to just be around you.”

Jane pretends she doesn’t notice the way that Max wipes at her face.

”It didn’t even matter if we were with everyone else, with their annoying voices and with their complaining, it didn’t matter cause you were there. And sometimes, I have a hard time remembering when I was happy, before you came here. I don’t think I really was. But you changed it, you changed all of it. And now, I don’t want to know a place without a Jane Hopper in it.

She giggles slightly.

“I think - I think what I’m trying to say is that, I want to kiss you too.”

Jane turns on her side, Max does too, and they’re facing each other again, just like they were before. But it’s so different this time, they’re no closer than before but it feels like they are. Suddenly Jane can count each freckle, each lash, each perfect imperfection. And as the sun beams on her back, she’s warm, and as they both lean in, Max’s lips are warm, too.

When they settle back against the covers, their earlier confessions ease the tension in their shoulders.

Max bites at her lip, “Are we...girlfriends?”

Jane laughs softly, “I want to be.”

”You do?”

Jane nods sleepily against her pillow, “Yes. Do you?”

Max nods, and she bites at her lip again, “Okay then. I guess we are, then.”

Jane holds out her pinky, “I guess we are.”

And when Max links her pinky around Jane’s, the next puzzle piece lands, it’s blue and red, and it comes down, intertwining softly with the last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY OMG THEY ARE SO ANNOYING


	8. the rupture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy omg it's been such a long while since i updated this, it's been a long while since i've updated anything. this went in a completely different direction so bear with me :) it's still an elmax story but my love for steve trumps everything.

Maybe Jane can learn to expect something different.

She _had_ expected something different. Something bad, something scary. More of the same.

A family is something she thought she'd do without. But now she has a house. Not a cabin, or a lab. 

The people inside are real. Not fake. Not ones who want to use her for their benefit, or entertainment. They love her, and care for her. They treat her like Jane, not an Eleven. Not a number, but a human being that can count it. She can count eleven people who've made her happy. Eleven times that she'd smile, in a day. All because of _them_.

And true enough, there are things that have gone wrong. There are narratives that she's changed, but they're okay with it. Because they're okay with her. They're okay with her mistakes, her downfalls. Her pain.

They're helping her learn to be okay with it. She's learning to expect something different. Something good, something warm. More of what's new.

 

When Jane finally leaves her room, it's well past dark. The lights are dim in Max's room as she passes by, Jane notes that to herself as she goes down the stairs. It's quiet in the house, save for the usual creaks it makes every now and then. Her toe is tickled as it grazes against the carpet through a hole in her sock, then it sends a chill through her when she meets the cold wood of the leveled floor. 

There's Steve, sitting at the island across from an upright Hopper. She pauses just before the banister, unable to be seen.

"Kid, you don't have to go back home."

"Yes I do. I - I don't want to but I do." Steve looks up at Hopper, an expression Jane can't describe on his _completely_ healed face.

Hopper moves around the island, blocking her view of Steve. "No you can't, kid. Wanna know why? Your father is a cop. K? _Everybody_ saw that fight. The better half of the goddamned town did, best believe that he got word of it."

"You don't know that."

Hopper scoffs as he puts out his cig, "Yeah, okay kid. So Miss Sally, what - you think she just kept her mouth shut? Huh?"

"So why hasn't he been over here yet then?" Steve asks quietly, almost like he's scared.

"He's just waiting on you, kid. Waiting for you to come home lookin' like a big bruise, except you've got nothing to show for it."

Steve absently reaches at his face. Hopper catches him and rests his hand on Steve's shoulder, "It's gonna be okay." And Jane knows that her father isn't the most comforting type, but this show of love wasn't forced. It wasn't awkward. He means it. Something different than what'd she seen earlier.

"Owens said - he said that you got a lot in you, kid."

"And, I don't know if he meant literally, or figuratively, but I _know_ that you'll use it for good."

" _Don't_ let this break you."

"I didn't let Jane do it. I'm not gonna let _you_ do it either."

 

Oh.

 

Hop was off to bed with a ruffle of Steve's hair, and with Jane's sleuthing she got by without being seen. But Steve saw.

"Jane." He says her name, not a question.

She walks towards him and slides into the seat beside him. The leather seat is cold on the part of her legs where her shorts don't cover.

"Hi, Steve."

"Hi." And in some way, it weighed heavy on her. His response, a common greeting she knows. One to be met with positivity and joy, but his was followed behind the almost prepubescent sounds of pain. She knows that pain all too well. It's a pain nobody can overcome. It just ties around your ankles like cinder blocks until you've gone so far down you can't sink any further. Then you drown in it. 

"Steve, what's wrong?"

He sniffles once. Then again as he pinches the skin on his forearm. "We uh - we talked to your friend. Doc Owens."

"What did he say?" The window's open slightly. The wind and the waves bring her some sense of calmness.

"Long story."

"I'm here."

The story relays in his mind, she can tell. His brows furrow together in anger, then come down in sadness. His eyes water and a tear falls, crashing onto the counter.

"You and I are true blood relatives, Janey."

"True blood?" She asks, a true question on her lips.

"Same mom, same dad." He points to himself, then back to her.

Jane turns her body to him fully, the leather seat squeaking under the movement under her skin. "What about John?"

Steve doesn't face her. "Our father, Martin Brenner, traveled to Italy some years ago. He met our mom, Theresa Iovino. They uh - met obviously and they hit it off. They never got married but they came to America, and they were pregnant with me. I don't uh - I don't remember any of this but apparently _Dad_ and I used to always be gone - together. Our mom just thought we were y'know, bonding. But he was just injecting me with drugs every two days. Then they uh- they had you. Then Dad took us away. Left mom all alone."

"She looked for us, right?"

"Yeah - yeah she did. She found out where we would be but by then he had already sold - given me away to John. He uh - _Brenner_ said that I wasn't reacting to the treatments," He laughed to himself at that, bitterly. "I guess I blocked all the trauma out 'cause I don't remember a thing. I just know that for my life that I _can_ remember, John Harrington was my father and my mom ran off with some other guy."

"All this time I had blamed her for leaving me, and that wasn't the case at all."

She reaches out with her hand quick, resting on his forearm. Hoping to ease his train wreck of thoughts, those thoughts that would drag him down deeper. She'd been there before. Blaming herself, burrowing herself into a hole.

"Not your fault. Don't blame yourself." She reaches around him and grabs his shoulders, turning him so that he would look at her. She points to herself and then back to him.

"You and me. In this together."

He looks her in the eyes for the first time that night, "You and me."

The story goes, that Martin Brenner had been their mother's real life prince charming. She was in love with him, but he was only in love with the idea of having kids of his own. So he wouldn't have to go through the hassle of taking them from someone else.

"Do you know all of your powers yet?" She asks him.

He shakes his head. "No, not yet. Still figuring them out," He says as he waves at his face, which had been covered in bruises just hours ago.

"Cool." She marvels at his new skin and the fact that he could even do that."

"Cool?"

"Yeah - _Bitchin_ '."

His eyebrows almost go all the way up to his hairline, " _Bitchin_ ', impressive. I like it."

Jane goes to shove him, feeling comfortable in their growing relationship until there's a hard and rapid knock at the front door. They share a look, the same one. Steve rises from his seat and steps slowly over to the door. He gestured for her to stay put, but she follows after him anyway. Something feels wrong.

Steve opens the door to reveal a man she hadn't seen before. Broad and angry looking, with a mustache similar to her father's. He reeks of rage and alcohol. Face covered in discontent. In evil. The person next to him she knows, Billy Hargrove. A face dissimilar to Steve's. Littered in purple and black bruises. Swollen eyes and a busted lip. And at the tip of his hairline there's sure to be a knot wanting to be seen. The man must be Neil, Billy's father.

Max had told her stories of him. Ones Jane didn't like. Broken vases and holes in the walls, covered up by portraits of a pretend family. Jane _knows_ Neil.

Steve answers a door with a, "Billy?"

And it sends Neil into overdrive.

Neil turns his head to Billy, menacingly and slow. Jane can tell where Billy gets his mannerisms from now.

"You told me you got into a fight." His voice low but it still rings throughout Jane's ears.

"I _did_." Billy hisses back, wide eyes glancing over Steve's face. 

Neil grabs Billy by the jaw, rough and unforgiving of his physical pain. "Look at him, and then think back to when Susan was patching up your fucking face while you were looking in the mirror!" He lets go of his son's face in a swift and sharp movement.

"Where is your father, Steven." It was not a question.

"Why?"

Neil steps past him, bumping into Steve's shoulder as he drags Billy into the house by his forearm. "I'd like to press charges."

Steve stutters, hand still gripping the doorknob. " _Charges_? What, why?"

Neil turns around whip fast. He walks closer to Steve, leaving his bloodied son too close into their home for comfort. 

" _Steven_."

"You surely can't believe that you can get away with beating on children, do you?" Steve opens his mouth to speak, but Neil's commanding voice grabs his words and puts them in a choke hold, draining them of any meaning they would have had. "Because, _my_ son is only seventeen years old. But _you_ , Steven, are nineteen. Therefore, you are an adult."

"I - I. No, no. _Fuck_ _no_ , okay? Your _son_ was grabbing Max all rough and shit! She had a handprint on her arm. Why don't you tell your son about hurting kids huh?"

"Horseplay."

All breath was knocked out of Steve at once, " _What_?"

"Bickering - rough housing between siblings. It's just horseplay."

"No -"

Neil turns to Billy who's staring at the floor, making a crater with the glare in his eyes. "Isn't that right Billy?"

"Yes sir."

Jane didn't feel a buzz this time. It felt more like a pour, a rupture of a bubble and now its contents are seeping out onto the floor, getting into the hole in her sock. Soaking her toes. Filling the house up to her knees until it feels like she's swimming in it. Steve's ruptured. A tear spills from his face and onto the floor.

"Are you crying?" Neil asks, disgust in his voice.

There's silence for a moment and Steve just stares at him. Doesn't move, doesn't blink. Then, just as Joyce and Hopper are bounding down the stairs, bringing smoke with them, he says,

"Something's wrong with you."

It felt like glass breaking. Slow and fast all at once. Mesmerizing. Neil moving, his hand balled into a fist, ready to collide with Steve's face. Steve bending his body backwards, hand outreached grabbing Neil's fist. Joyce's gasp in the back, just a few feet behind Jane. Hopper's yell, the beat of his socked feet as they connect to the floor as he runs to Steve. Max comes down the stairs, pretty. Wrapped up in a blanket from Jane's room. Her eyes full of sleep as she uses a hand to guide herself, touching the wall as she come down. Then, her face morphs into horror, anger, fear. The blanket drops to the floor. She almost trips on it as she runs right past Jane, the smell of her shampoo filling Jane's nose. Mixing with Billy, still smelling like rain and blood. Dirt and sand from the carnival floor. He's a still picture, eyes boring into his father. No expression. Just a stare.

Suddenly, the scene comes back to Jane. Everything moving quickly as it should be. It's Hopper pulling Neil off of Steve, Joyce dragging a bloodied boy over to the corner.

Billy looks to her, his face coming together as he grins. His teeth looking too big for his mouth. The knot goes down, his black and purple bruises turn back into tan California skin. It's Billy.

"Something's wrong with Billy." She says aloud and the room clicks.

 

The waves sound like a train as they crash against the windows. She hadn't had time to move, or brace herself for the impact. For the load.

She can't tell if it was her or Steve who had done it. Billy was just - reaching for her. Morphing into something she had never seen before. Neil too. Steve got to him, his blood covering the hardwood, seeping into the thin lines. Billy had changed. Something unlike himself. He's still coming for her. She scrambles back away from him. Her hands slipping in the blood on the floor.

"They sent us to you."

She dares to ask.

The lights flickered. He inched closer and closer to her, his boots squelching in the liquid.

He just shakes his head at her. Waggles his index finger back and forth. Closer and closer he gets. Closer, and closer.

Too close until he isn't there anymore. And Steve's behind him, staggering as his own blood drains from his eyes until he collapses.

 

There's a puzzle piece. 

There's another board. The piece settles right smack in the middle of it. Coated in red.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so like,,, ok!
> 
> it's gonna explain itself when i upload again... a different pov if you will. literally

**Author's Note:**

> i deleted another story i was writing because i wasn’t feeling it anymore but THIS!! 
> 
> i’m so in love with this like wow you guys  
> enjoy and feel free to leave feedback okay bye


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